The quarterly meeting of the Osage Shareholders Association was held via Zoom on Feb. 16 due to an evening winter storm that created less than desirable road conditions for an in-person meeting.
After the last meeting minutes were read and the treasurer’s report was given, Osage Shareholder Association Chairwoman Maria Whitehorn wasted no time stating the obvious.
“There’s a lot of things in flux right now in our Osage Nation and our Minerals Estate and in the federal government right now,” she said.
The organization shared they were doing well financially with over $9,000 in the bank. The March quarterly Shareholder payment will be $4,830. That’s up more than $400 compared to the December quarterly payment, which topped out at $4,470. Whitehorn shared that in March of 2014, quarterly payments topped out at over $9,000.
Former Osage Agency Superintendent Adam Trumbly was scheduled to speak at the meeting, but Whitehorn said she didn’t learn of his layoff until she returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., a few days before the meeting.
Trumbly, Katie Yates-Free, and Amanda McKinley, all BIA employees and Osage tribal members, were going to speak about probate issues to shareholders. Yates-Free and McKinley are still employed at the Osage agency and Whitehorn said she received an email from Trumbly, Yates-Free and McKinley that due to personnel uncertainties, they would not be attending the meeting.
Whitehorn said she was really becoming comfortable with Mr. Trumbly and thought he was a reasonable person to deal with.
“I’m not very pleased that he’s not here anymore,” she said.
Trumbly had been the Osage Agency Superintendent for less than two years. His term started in the fall of 2023. As part of the Trump administration’s reduction of government workers, those who were on probation, which is 1-2 years in service, were let go.
Whitehorn opened the meeting up to take comments and questions from shareholders.
Osage Minerals Council member Paul Revard wanted to clarify for those at the meeting that Trumbly had not done anything wrong by being on a probationary period, but that he had not worked there long enough to meet the requirements of being considered a permanent employee.
He also told Shareholders he expected Regional Director Eddie Streater to be speaking to the Minerals Council soon about the issue and that he thought Trumbly’s firing to be temporary. Osage News has not received any information from Regional Director Streater about this issue.
Traci Phillips, the OSA treasurer, said she thought a letter penned by the OSA, the Minerals Council and the Osage Producers Association to reinstate Mr. Trumbly might be a powerful collective action to take. Revard said the Minerals Council has been in conversation with their legal team about drafting such a letter.
Other shareholders expressed concern that he be reinstated because of the trust and fiscal responsibility the United States Government has toward tribal nations and that informing their federal representative would be important.
“What I’m trying to figure out is do we as a shareholders association feel like we should have a voice in this matter, and if so, what would that voice be?” Whitehorn said.
Osage Nation Congressman Joe Tillman believes this layoff might have been an error and lack of oversight from the current administration.
“We are by statute to have a superintendent even if Mr. Trumbly was on probation … begs the question of who are they going to replace him with … Another superintendent that’s also going to be on probation?” Tillman said.
Phillips made a motion the OSA write a letter of support for Trumbly and speak to the Osage Producers Association to see if they would like to join in that support letter. The motion passed.
Other items on the agenda included a presentation from Shane Matson, the President of Bluejacket Energy. He said the last decade of oil production on the Minerals Estate has been a challenge due to the regulatory environment and lawsuits. He said he does remain hopeful there will be more productive times ahead for the Minerals Estate.
“The canary isn’t dead. The canary’s flying around and there’s oxygen and things moving. There’s a lot of oil to recover,” he said.
